Hello children, today let me relay the frustration surrounding spares on my 2015 GS 1200 LC.
I noticed a small oil spot on the floor below the GS about a week ago and I could see that it was leaking on the inboard (wheel side) of the final drive. It was not a huge leak but it seemed to have had a slow leak for a while but I only noticed it once the oil was on the floor.
The seal replacement was priced around R1800 for the seal, labour etc. by the local BMW dealer.
Above is a picture of the seal that required replacement.
This in itself was fine but the technician found that the collar onto which the seal seals, was damaged.
They disassembled the final drive and although the outboard seal was fine, the shaft was also damaged below that seal. The seals were filled with dirt on the inside and although I have been diligent about servicing the final drive every time I had the scooter in deep water in addition to the normal BMW mandated servicing schedule, it was not enough. Disassembly and seal inspection is not part of the BMW service schedule. The recent recall for the drain one-way valve on the cardan shaft housing was also done a while back.
The shaft was damaged to the point that a polish of the sealing surfaces would probably not be good enough. So I need a new shaft.
Below is a picture of the sealing surface on the right hand of the final drive where the seal failed. The seal matches to the collar between the splines (where the carrier fits for the rear brake disc) and the bearing (which is also not replaceable by the way). It's on the left hand side of this picture.
In the picture below, the left hand side sealing surface is shown and it also has been damaged by the seal after 8 years of water / dirt / dust just grinding away at the shaft. The bike has a full service history and the final drive has had the odd additional oil change on my request.
The bearings and gear teeth are in good nick and the servicing probably had a good impact on that.
So, to get to my gripe with the product, below is a picture of all the items that are required to be replaced. It includes the casing, bearings, final drive, crown wheel, pinion gear etc.
What the actual *%$@?
All of these components are on one part number 😨! Only the seals and other small items are seemingly separate replacement items. The full price of a final drive (excluding labour etc.) is around R32k!
How and why is this possible? 😱
If I went dumpster diving and tried to get a second hand final drive, what would the condition be and how long will it last? Unless it is a low mileage accident damaged bike, this is a risky option.
Come on BMW, this is 2023. Sell the parts separately so that the actual BMW dealers can replace them. This isn't even a right to repair issue. The parts are only available as preassembled units. I can understand that the teeth need to match and so forth but the older model air-cooled GS bikes could have the gear assembly shimmed to adjust the contact area of the teeth. Why was the LC model made worse from a repairability perspective? This is just driving a consumerism mentality and creating so much waste.
Oh yes, great idea, let's remove plastic straws but force someone to throw away perfectly good, accurately machined parts or maybe claim R200 from the local scrap metal yard.
I don't understand it from an end-user perspective. Perhaps BMW can keep less spare parts on hand and "guarantee" performance of the unit but damn. This is why they have qualified technicians. Perhaps I'm getting older but in my dad's time cars used to have procedures for setting valve gaps in the normal user manual. Now, now you can't do anything on your own and the OEM does not even provide spare parts down to an acceptable level that a technician could easily assemble.
When the drain recall was done on the cardan shaft housing, scooters with high mileages had their final drives replaced. Mine was checked and found to be in specification and the mileage was too low, so no replacement. Unfortunately, I don't use my GS on the road much and when I commute, it is via farm roads as well. I serviced when required and even more so when I knew it was used offroad in the wet a lot. The bike also does not qualify for a BMW goodwill claim as it is over 7 years old. I feel like I am being punished for not replacing the GS every time a new model comes out.
I must say that the BMW dealer gave me a new 1250 GS to ride for the time my scooter was in the shop and also drove up and down to get me to the dealer and they are not in the same town as I am. Once again, great dealer, questionable product and poor spares availability. The 1250 scooter is definitely smoother than mine but that is to be expected. The one part I did not enjoy was the rake angle. It is stable on the road but I could just not seem to get it to turn as sharply as the 1200. The first 90 degree turn I made was one lane wide and although it improved a bit, it just feels off.
It will probably be a great touring bike with this handling, the seat warmer etc. but for my riding habits the trophy edition without any electronics on would probably make more sense although it would still have the long rake angle and horrid suspension. The auto setting is okay but the automatic stiffening happens when I don't expect it. Perhaps this is a user problem and will get better with time. Hard is too hard and soft is good for most rides. Surprisingly the suspension cannot be changed whilst riding as on the 1200. This is a step backwards towards the air-cooled adventure I used to have. Gearbox wise there has been a good improvement made on the 1200. Shorter shift level travel felt secure when engaging any gear and the ratios were not bad either. Quick-shifting on the 1200 from 1st to 2nd is a violent experience with heavy loads imposed on the transmission and final drive. I avoid doing this as far as possible but the 1250 seemed better at it. I must say I rode it very conservatively as it is not mine, and I don't want to abuse their sales pitch, uhm, sorry I mean kind gesture.
Anyway, now I am sitting with a conundrum (again) that I should probably trade my GS and get something else but I have (again) spent to much on it, that I want to get some use out of it. Sunk cost fallacy if I ever heard one.
Talk to you after the next part fails, or has already failed and is replaced. There is already a faulty rear shock absorber lower bush that is worn. I'll perhaps post about that one another time.
